Tea has somehow been associated with politics, at least in America. However, Mani Shankar Aiyer, by his tasteless remark on Modi, has introduced into Indian politics. By being undiplomatic in language he used at the All India Congress Committee session, Mani Shankar Ayer, a Cambridge graduate, a former career diplomat and a Tamil Brahmin to boot brought chai (tea) back into politics.

Ayer promised to the gathering that the
BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi would never become prime minister of
the country in the 21st Century. And, he went on to add, "But if he wants to distribute tea here, we will find a place for
him."

In
Focus

The reference was to Modi's background.
Modi's father used to run an ordinary tea stall and Modi in his
childhood used to carry tea in a kettle to the Vadnagar Railway
Station in Gujarat to serve it to passengers as the trains come in.
This was mocking the socio-economic background of an opposition
candidate at its worst.

Ours is a civilised country and none
ordinarily would mock the lowly origin of a candidate. But Mani
Shankar Ayer is different. Born with a silver spoon, having had the
best of education in India and abroad and having worked as a diplomat
even in most dangerous of places like Pakistan he had no qualms about
making such an undiplomatic, insensitive, arrogant, scornful and
contemptuous statement.

No wonder, he was roundly criticised by
all right-thinking people and even the Congress Party distanced
itself from the statement. The Congress Vice President, the Gandhi
scion, even expressed unhappiness about it at a public meeting.

Ayer's stupid jibe at Modi boomeranged
with an uncanny force and the Congress was put on the back foot.
Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party was quick to make use of the
deprecatory comment and capitalise on it and derived miles of
advantage from it. Hundreds of Modi or "NaMo" (short for Narendra
Modi) Tea Stalls came up in the country with photographs of Modi on
their signboards.

People flocked to these tea stalls as much for
showing support to him as for fun. In the rural towns and settlements
these became centres of attraction and people would visit them for
taking a hot cup of sugary overly boiled tea and indulge in some
spicy political gossip. Not only indicative of the extent of support
for the Party and for Modi, these stalls became an embarrassment for
the ruling Party and its aspirants who were in the electoral fray.

This was not all. BJP organised what came to be
known as "chai pe charcha" (discussions over tea) at
many tea stalls and ordinary, no-frills restaurants. The idea rapidly
caught on and "chai pe charcha" spread virtually all
over the country. Even Modi participated in these discussions. One
such "charcha" was held in Rajasthan that had 67
locations in the state connected with video links for
question-and-answer session - a kind of teleconferencing.

It became a perfect vehicle for public-connect for
the BJP, striking the right chord with the people. Modi appeared on
giant screens fitted in several tea stalls and was connected live
with the people and entered into public discourses with them
expanding his views on several vital issues, such as empowerment of
women.

In an event organised in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, relayed
live at around 1000 tea stalls, Modi appeared on huge screens with a
cup of tea in hand answering questions and expatiating on
accountability in governance. These events got favourable responses
from the press in the country as well as abroad. The Washington Post
and the New York Times covered them and the French press made an
unkind cut on Ayer by saying that in today's world arrogance born out
of lineage is a distinct disadvantage. Not to be left behind, the
media houses too sent their news anchors to restaurants to discuss
and ascertain the views of young voters on the main contenders.

While Ayer, with his expression of disdain for Modi,
handed on a platter to the latter a vehicle for electoral propaganda,
he, perhaps, unwittingly brought "tea" back into reckoning in
politics. Tea has for long been associated with politics and to trace
that one has to travel more than a couple of centuries back in time.
Resistance against Britain's power to tax colonies in America as
evidenced by the Tea Act of 1773 gave birth to the Boston Tea Party,
inducing a wave of resistance throughout the colonies against tax
imposed on tea by the British Parliament.

The Act also had its origin in Parliament's effort
to rescue the financially weakened East India Company, a victim of
smuggling into America of cheaper Dutch tea, so as to continue
benefiting from the company's valuable position in India.

The hard-line taken by the British Government
against the protesters known as Colonists, also called Whigs and
sometimes Sons of Liberty, to emphasise the authority of the Mother
Government to impose taxes on people in the colonies despite being
unrepresented in the British Parliament gave rise to the movement for
rejecting the tea that used to be imported from England.

In May 1773 the Colonists, disguised as American
Mohawk Indians, entered the ship berthed at Boston ferrying tea from
India via Britain and dumped the entire consignment into the sea. It
signified culmination of resistance against the Tea Act in the entire
British America. The stiff resistance against Britain?s rigid and
uncompromising attitude bore the seeds of the American Revolution and
eventually became the precursor of the American War of Independence.

Much later, in our own times, as late as 2009, once
again we heard of The Tea Party protests. The iconic events of 1773
have been used on several occasions to describe anti-tax movements as "Tea Party" movements. But the Tea Party protests of the last
decade were ones that were mostly of fiscally conservative and
socio-political nature that engulfed the United States. The protests
were against several federal laws that were perceived to have sought
to enlarge the sphere of influence of the Federal Government.

These were coordinated throughout the nation with a
libertarian philosophy against what the members of the Tea Party
believed to be attempts of President Obama to create a "Big
Government" that they thought would tread on people?s liberty.
Some of them even later went so far as to call him a "Lefty". The
Tea Party came to wield such power that it had an official nominee of
the Republican Party defeated in the 2010 Congressional elections for
he was not enough of a libertarian.

There has also been unlikely fallout of Ayer's
off-hand and arrogant dig at Modi. Looking at the reaction and the
support Modi received other candidates from the same caste-group or
deprived sections shed their diffidence and broadcast their humble
origins. Thus "Paanwalas" and "Chawlwallas" came out in the
open seeking voters' support, a phenomenon (though not quite a schism
yet) that was unfortunately born out of Ayer's derisive remark.

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